Many people have developed procedures for collection mapping. There is not a correct or incorrect procedure. However keep in mind that each school is unique and many schools are placing emphasis in particular areas related to their curriculum.
The following steps can be used for collection mapping:
Gather information about the collection such as size and average copyright for the overall collection.
Divide the total size of the collection by the number of students in the school, and chart the result on the Collection map graph.pdf under “total collection."
Decide the general emphasis collections that support whole courses of instruction, such as U.S. History, elementary biological science, geography, etc. Count the number of items in the collection that treat the general emphasis topic (in the Dewey Classification).
Decide which specific emphasis collection support units of instruction, such as U.S. Civil War, insects, dinosaurs, etc. Count the number of items in the collection treating the specific topic.
Divide the total size of each emphasis (general and specific) collection by the number of students in the school and chart the resulting items/student on a collection map.
If an emphasis collection is not large enough to be visible on the collection map, it should not be charted unless it is to become a target for collection development.
Component 3 - Collection Development
The following steps can be used for collection mapping: